Buster Olney: “Nuclear Option Is Matt Harvey To Minors”

Earlier today on Levack and Goz ESPN Insider Buster Olney joined the show to discuss the biggest headlines involving both the Yankees and Mets. The Yankees start a series tonight against the Houston Astros. Coverage starts at 625pm, with first pitch set for 705pm on your home for the Yankees ESPN Radio 1045 The Team. How important is this series for the New York Yankees? Will a win or even a split series result in Yankees doubters believing in this year's bunch? Plus we dive into the Matt Harvey controversy involving the New York Mets over the weekend. Olney believes there is an option where Matt Harvey could end up being sent to the minor leagues.

Before the press conference, I wrote a piece about how folks with other teams were wondering if the Mets would consider--as they try to alter the behavior of Matt Harvey--of going to a nuclear option and sending him to the minor leagues, which they have the right to do. He has less than 5 years of service time. He hasn’t pitched that well and they could basically tell him, ‘Look, if you don’t start acting the way we need you to act, then we’re gonna send you to Binghamton and you can work it out there.’ And of course there would be a real threat in that for Harvey because they held him in the minor leagues for long enough this summer that it would delay his free agency by a year, potentially from 2018 to 2019. So the Mets probably aren’t close to doing something like that or even thinking about it. But this is a crossroads in his career right now and he has to start focusing on work. There’s a lot of concern within the industry that he’s someone who doesn’t put himself in a position to succeed in baseball.

Would the New York Mets want to make a huge move like this? Should Matt Harvey be sent to the minor leagues? Let us know below.